SeanAUS120 said...
The strongest recorded gust I saw on that day was 48 knots. Most of the racing that day it was +40 knots and it doesn't quite look it in the photos but the chop is super close together, steep and nasty and then you have a slow rolling swell of around 1m that goes in the direction you are sailing; perpendicular to the wind chop, so it's pretty hard to sail in a straight line even!

I think the level in slalom has gone up in the last 2 years. Maybe its still the Antoine and Bjorn show overall but if you look through the results of the whole Top 16 the places are changing dramatically every event and there is a ton of guys who can win winner's finals now. None of this 'Antoine winning 7 out of 8 eliminations' like it was 3-4 years ago!

In your opinion Sean, what are the factors that have made the other guys so much more competitive and hungry than they were 3-4 years ago when Antoine was in control of many slalom finals?

Also, do you know if many of the top 16 PWA racers train for events in 40+ knots on their slalom kit?

GazMan said...

In your opinion Sean, what are the factors that have made the other guys so much more competitive and hungry than they were 3-4 years ago when Antoine was in control of many slalom finals?

Also, do you know if many of the top 16 PWA racers train for events in 40+ knots on their slalom kit?

Ok, this is gonna be LONG so bear with me! This is my take on what's happening with the level and how it's happened...

If we take the 'glory days' of slalom which arguably finished up in 2001 with Kevin finally beating Bjorn overall after 2,000 years of domination; what happened for the next 5-6 years was slalom disappeared and so did the tour and as a result the level went down, down, down…

I went to the Fuerte World Cup in 2006 and had never done a downwind slalom race in my life; finished 22nd and could barely gybe. Antoine was there, Bjorn was there ... but the overall level was SUPER low. There was also I think only about 4 slalom events that year and although the Top 5 guys were as good as now probably, the rest of us weren't that good at all.

Flick forward to 2011 and in this last 4 years they have slowly increased the amount of slalom events each year, increased the prizemoney, and now in the past 18 months increased the media package (ala live-stream and awesome commentary from yours truly !!).

What that has actually done is pushed a lot of the brands in to seeing the value of sponsoring riders specifically to do the PWA events and better their results at the expense of other types of windsurfing or events. I know at Point-7, we have generated a big surge in traffic across all our online channels just by making sure we have at least 4-6 riders at the PWA slalom events (even though our team is all super young up-and-comers, with no real Top-5 riders), so we sponsor more slalom guys rather than wave riders or formula sailors etc.

With the extra brand support that is around now for riders specifically for the PWA events (don't get me wrong, the budgets brands have for riders are SUPER low compared to years back, but I mean the actual gear and support directed specifically towards doing PWA is bigger than ever), coupled with the media package the PWA has I think it's really good for riders to get their own sponsors outside of the industry. Add that to the higher prizemoney and now you are starting to get 20-30 riders on the tour who are FULL-TIME pro's rather than just having the Top 5 as pro's and the rest just 50% pro / 50% working like a dog at a supermarket to afford some fins.

What happens when you get a lot more guys making a full-time living out of the sport compared to the 2004-2008 years? Guys start training SPECIFICALLY for certain conditions and that includes the +40 knots, yep.

Most of the French guys base themselves in Marseille or Gruissan or wherever it is in the south where it nukes 50-60 knots all winter. Ben van der Steen moved to Tarifa so he could train all last winter with Ludovic on the Loft Sails and also get some time in the windy conditions. I know Finian and Peter Volwater usually go to Gran Canaria before Fuerte for a month or so to train in 50 knots there … I myself went to Tenerife for a few weeks at the beginning of the year to train in super high winds (although I got skunked while I was there).

So yes… a lot of the top guys train specifically for certain conditions like +50 knots etc. Also most of us are developing sails half the year so at the same time we are training we might be testing the 5.0 and 5.5m sails so we are chasing high-wind locations for both reasons.

There is probably some more factors that have helped increase the level on the tour these days like more fin manufacturers producing much better fins than years past, better equipment across all the brands [even the small brands] and maybe more slalom events each year means more people put the effort in to train for them…. but I won't bore you all with more details.

Certainly it's a good time for windsurfing!

SeanAUS120 said...

GazMan said...

In your opinion Sean, what are the factors that have made the other guys so much more competitive and hungry than they were 3-4 years ago when Antoine was in control of many slalom finals?

Also, do you know if many of the top 16 PWA racers train for events in 40+ knots on their slalom kit?

Ok, this is gonna be LONG so bear with me! This is my take on what's happening with the level and how it's happened... (read above)

Many many thanks Sean for a superb, informative and right-to-the-point response!!!

Will be cheering for you in upcoming PWA events!

izymiester said...

Bjorn Dunkerbeck struggled in 45 knot racing at Fuerteventura, not because the other guys were better than him.

at the startt of the pwa season you can register 6 sails and 3 boards and bjorn chose a 6.2 and the 90 isonic carbon as smallest equipment.

Isaac,
The video posted on page 1 of this topic which was winners final slalom elimination 8 shows Cyril Moussilmani overtaking Bjorn on the last leg just after gybing. Do you think this happened because Bjorn was having trouble with his 6.2 or was something else going on? (he certainly had more speed on the straights than anyone else before this!)